Smoke And Mirrors
by CluainnFhada
Summary: Magician AU. Librarian and performance legacy Maka Albarn won't assist. Soul Eater Evans needs an assistant.
1. Playing Cards and Youtube

**Here goes. This'll take a while. Thank you Caitlin, or 221stepstobakerstreet on tumblr dot com, for beta-ing this despite that fact she does not read/watch Soul Eater. She is hilarious. **

**Obviously, I do not own Soul Eater, but even if I did, I'd probably write dumb secretly not fanfiction for it anyway, so I may be lying.**

**I'll add the art links when they arrive on the Masterpost thread, and I recommend checking out 'In the House of Molly White' because I adored it, and like, I was not expecting the ending. (Also I illustrated it, but I still have to scan that big ass picture somehow.)**

**Here's to Resbang 2013!**

* * *

**1. Playing Cards and Youtube**

Some called it fate, and some called it luck. Some called it a heap of lies cleverly engineered to give them an interesting backstory, but Soul and Maka called it a hell of a coincidence and more than a little creeping on both their parts.

There'd always be a lot of arguing at the start of the story but eventually they'd fall into step with each other and be laughing and blushing and smiling and finishing each others' sentences without too much interruption.

* * *

_"I couldn't believe it when our agent told us someone wanted to do a documentary on our story. I didn't think it was all that exciting." _

_"Are you kidding, it involves Black*Star, how could it not be exciting?"_

_"So, how did you two first meet?"_

_"I thought everyone knew that story."_

_"Well, let's be on the safe side and tell it anyway."_

* * *

Between the two of them, they'd agreed the initial encounter was probably a Tuesday, but may have also been a Wednesday. Sometime in early October(according to Maka), or maybe late September(in Soul's opinion). They'd been walking, both shuffling cards, flipping them quickly in their hands and counting them as they moved from hand to hand through the air. Passers-by who didn't bother to help glanced at the explosion of playing cards before rolling their eyes and moving on.

The cards fluttered to the ground like confetti, both of them far too startled to do anything but stare at each other through the cards falling through the air. It wasn't until the cards settled on the ground that either of them reacted properly.

Maka had glared at him _like it wasn't both their faults_ and -Soul always mentioned this part of the story- didn't bother with the usual double take at his quite frankly fucked up pigmentation. She just sat down cross leggedly on the ground and started flipping cards into separate piles almost faster than Soul's eyes could follow, thoroughly annoyed that her count had been messed up. It took her a second, her thought process lagging behind the task at hand, to realise there were two decks despite the fact she was sorting them into two stacks.

Soul joined her on the pavement, moving cards into the decks she'd already started and trying to avoid the all too clear view down her top.

She was more than likely already mad enough at him.

"I'm Soul." He grinned sheepishly. "Sorry about this, I just wasn't paying attention."

"Maka." She was curt. Probably wanted him to shut up and leave her alone with her card counting and cheap tricks. He wasn't curious enough to be an asshole in her eyes. "It wasn't entirely your fault. Just about eighty percent,"

"Thanks-hey!" She smiled at him, genuinely.

"An argument could be made for seventy." Did she know she was kind of quoting the Avengers, or was she just like that?

"There's only three types of people who shuffle cards like that in the street, so tell me, are you a gambler, a con artist, or a magician?" He took his deck and started counting the cards; she did the same with the other deck.

"Aren't they all the same thing?" She flashed him a practiced smirk, the kind he knew she used on her audience. He noted with surprise for the first time that his cards were green backed and hers were red. He offered her the green, his deck.

"Those aren't mine."

"But the red matches my eyes so much better." She took the green deck, but handed him back his phone number, the one he'd slipped carefully in between the cards. The one she wasn't supposed to find until later when hopefully she might remember him as more attractive than he looks right now, with his hair deflated and pushed back out of his eyes with a thin black hair band because he was getting it cut and the barber would kill him if he had gel in it.

"Thank you, Soul 'Eater' Evans. You can keep this though."

She got up and walked away, leaving him dumbfounded she'd seen that and more than a little disappointed for a minute before he realized that this was most certainly not his messy handwriting or his digits. He'd fist pumped the air in the middle of the street before; worried she might glance back at him, nodding and carrying on his path, flipping her cards in his hand.

They both Googled each other that night, over curious and both rationalizing it to be 'too soon to call'. Maka had immediately more success that Soul, as magicians and people in general that go by the name of Soul 'Eater' Evans are pretty thin on the ground. He was already pretty well known, with a steady enough stream of gigs and the all important Evans family trust fund ensuring he, unlike her, didn't need to work a day job. He looked damn handsome in his stage getup, having garnered more success than Maka**,** who was still a street performer with a small cult following that had a tendency to creep the crap out of her.

He'd broken almost all ties with his family(apart from the famous family trust fund, she suspected), the musically prestigious Evans family of New England. He'd been classically trained in piano, but she couldn't find any clips of him playing, though she couldn't avoid clips of his elder brother Wes Evans, violinist extraordinaire. She guessed he was good, but in a sort of generic kind of way. Music had never been her strong suit and the music she liked**,** tended to be the music that her roommate liked- dancey type techno music.

Blair, Maka's roommate and professional porn model, arrived home late. She was trying to leave the porn scene with mixed results that were turning out to be mostly 'I didn't get the part of the person in the thing that doesn't have anything to with porn but I do have a shoot in the next few days that has got to do with porn'. Blair liked being sexy and it showed. She kissed the top of Maka's head as she passed. Blair was openly affectionate, and while it had bothered Maka two years ago when Blair'd been the only person to answer her ad on CraigsList, she'd gotten used to the woman's strange habits and the smell of burnt fish on an all too regular basis.

Something in the vicinity of Blair mewed. Maka's head shot up to see Blair stiffen, then try to quickly regain her composure and keep heading to the fridge.

"Blair." Blair pretended not to hear, and talked loudly over another mewing noise while she rummaged in the fridge for-Maka suspected- milk. Maka stood. "Blair. Your purse is meowing."

"You're hearing things, Maka. I think you need to get your ears checked." Maka could see the flush on her roommate's ears-she was wearing enough makeup to cover the red in her cheeks. "Anyway, purses don't-"

"_Meow," _said Blair's purse. Her blush heightened to the levels that Maka could see a pink flush through her make-up.

"Blair, do you have a kitten in your purse?" Maka asked, crossing her arms and tapping her foot.

"I don't**–** not– maybe- possibly, there is a slim chance a kitten just sneaked into there I mean I don't really know whether-"

"Blair."

"_Oh Maka please don't be mad she just looked to sad and lonely in the rain-" _It hadn't rained all week "-_I couldn't just leave her there, Maka, she needs me and I promise I'll take care of her and I'll house train her and everything and I won't let her into your room and she's really sweet and you'll just love her Maka-!"_

"Stop a minute Blair, and slow down. Take the kitten out of your purse before she pees in there or something." Blair bundled the little ball of black fur into Maka's arms. "Blair this isn't what I meant- hello sweetie! Aren't you just the cutest thing!"

Blair smiled. She was much cleverer than she was given credit for. Maka looked up from cooing at the kitten.

"Okay, you can keep the kitten if the landlord says it's okay." Maka started talking to the kitten again. "What's your name, precious?"

"Oh! Maka that's perfect! Hello Precious!"

"Blair we aren't calling this kitty 'Precious'. Name her something sensible, like Emma!"

"But Maka that's so _boring." _Blair whined. "You can't name her that!"

A short and strange and wonderful piano solo is drowned out as they continue to argue over the name of the newest resident of apartment 12C.

* * *

_"We both partook in some minor cyberstalking that night."_

_"I wouldn't call it cyberstalking... it was more like research."_

_"It was creeping."_

* * *

Soul spent the night on Youtube, watching her do card tricks mostly, insanely clever ones he's never seen before**,** on street corners filmed with poor quality camera phones. He texts Black*Star, real name Brian, who's still on the street performance circuit with his 'assistant' Tsuabki. She was just as capable a performer as Black*Star, but too shy to really showcase her talents. Tsubaki was happy to take a back seat to Black*Star, which was strange for a sword swallower.

They might have crossed paths with Maka. Street performers had some kind of extremely exclusive circle that he'd never been privy too. His familial connections had made certain he'd skipped a few steps he was sure he'd regret in later life.

Black*Star -who couldn't type anything unless it was capitalized- replied with 'SHE GOT GREEN EYES AND BLONDE HAIR YEAH? WE USED TO GO THE SAME ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. I THINK SHE'S TSUBAKI'S FRIEND. SHE'S A TOTAL BOOKWORM.'

Soul stared at his phone until it flashed with a secondary, confirmative message. The response, however, was a little different than expected.

'YEAH TSU KNOWS HER FROM AROUND. SHE GOT SOME SERIOUS ISSUES THOUGH. WON'T ASSIST FOR NO ONE. NOT EVEN ME! YOU'VE MET HER DAD, THOUGH.'

_Won't assist. Pretty girl who wouldn't assist, not even to try make a start in the industry._

Soul's met a lot of people in his life as a potential trophy son, and his life as a juvenile delinquent, and his life as an up-and-coming magician. He couldn't think of anyone immediately, so he checked the card. Just her first name and her number.

Soul sighed and replied, asking who her Dad was.

'WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T REMEMBER? HE'S YOUR FUCKING HERO SOUL. THAT SPIRIT ALBARN GUY. NOWHERE NEAR AS GOOD AS ME, BUT THEN, WHO IS?'

He had met Spirit Albarn once, a long time ago, and acted like a complete idiot and geeked out. The man was his childhood hero and magician idol. He was the one who gotten him into magic _and Soul had his daughter's number._

This was the best fucking day ever. He dug out his copy of Spirit Albarn's autobiography and flicked to the glossy section in the middle with the full colour photographs. There she was, about five years of age captioned, 'Spirit and Family'. And again, 'Daughter Assisting' with a smiling twelve year old Maka Albarn.

He'd needed a new assistant, ever since Kim left to assist Ox Ford, for higher wages and more grovelling.


	2. A Hoover and Ice

**2. A Hoover and Ice**

Maka's alarm woke her up at what Blair considered an ungodly hour and Maka considered a perfectly reasonable hour if you wanted to get some housework done. Before you had to go work in a public library all day, mostly telling people to 'shush' and returning borrowed books to the shelves and scanning cards and shushing people some more because even though everyone knows you are supposed to be quiet in the library many people just aren't.

Maka liked cleaning the tiny apartment in the morning, before Blair woke up to 'help'. Blair was somewhat of a hindrance when it came to the domestic parts of life, but she did pay for the internet and cable as well as having her rent on time. She'd also promised that'd she'd pay for the cat food for Bella (Blair was not to be moved).

Blair could sleep through anything, so Maka had no qualms about starting up the hoover at 6 AM to get a head start on the vacuuming. As she cleaned she wondered about Soul 'Eater' Evans, and whether or not she should call him.

Tomorrow maybe.

Or the next day.

Or the next?

* * *

_ "This was all when I still worked in the library and living with Blair. I loved that library. I miss working there. I was actually talking to Blair yesterday, she never really made it Hollywood in the end which was sad, but she did end up engaged to that guy."_

_"What guy?"_

_"Oh, you know the guy, everyone knows the guy. I can't think of his name just at the minute but you know the guy. Everyone knows the guy."_

* * *

Almost a week later, Maka had not at all forgotten about the magician who'd taken her cards, but she still wasn't going to call him. He could call her. He had her number too, didn't he? What if he'd lost it?

Served him right. She shoved the book back into the shelf with unnecessary force. "Excuse me, miss," A kid, maybe eight or nine, tapped her arm. Maka plastered a friendly smile on her face. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Fire away." She put the books in her arms back on the returns trolley.

"Where do you keep the books on magic?" Her smile became a hell of a lot more genuine.

"All books are magic, but do you want to learn magic, or do you want to read stories about magic?" Maka asked.

"I want to learn magic tricks. I saw a magic show last weekend and it was the coolest thing ever. Everyone else in my class wants to be boring things like race-car drivers and actors."

"Being a magician is really hard though," Maka smiled. "I should know."

"But you're a librarian."

"Not all the time." She shook her head. "And my father was a magician. A really famous one too."

"Oh," They lapsed into silence as the boy was faced with the daunting task of choosing a book from the considerable amount available to him.

"What kind of book are you looking for?" She asked kindly. There wasn't a book on that shelf she hadn't read, unless they'd gotten some secret new stock and nobody had told her. She owned copies of all her favourite ones too.

"I want to learn magic..." He repeated, in awe.

"Do you have a library card?"

He shook his head, busy gaping to the shelves. The bookstore had, like, eight books total.

"Well, if you have a library card you can take out six books at a time for two weeks." Maka said. "When you're an adult, it can be up to ten."

"What ones are good to start with?" He asked.

Maka stacked four books into her arms. "Well, these ones were my favourites when I was your age."

"You said I could have six."

"I did say that, but I thought you might want to try other kinds of books."

"Not really."

"That's okay," She grinned at him. She scanned the spines of the books and then selected two more books. "These look good to you?"

He nodded and she brought them to the main desk.

"There's just this dumb form you have to fill in." She helped him fill in the form while trying to simultaneously log his details into the computer.

"Do you have seven bucks?" He didn't. Maka shrugged. "I'll let you go this time, but when you return those books you better show me a magic trick you learned."

He nodded stacking the pile of books into his arms and holding them in place with his chin as she held the door open for him. A blue haired hooligan moved through the open door as Maka watched the boy show off his library card to his statuesque mother. Or nanny. Whatever.

"Pigtails?"

Maka looked up so fast she almost got whiplash. "Brian? Brian Costello?"

"Pigtails! Haven't you heard that I go by the almighty Black*Star now!?"

"Haven't you heard that _I _go by Maka?" she grinned at him. She was actually pretty sure that Black*Star didn't actually know her first name. "It's great to see you! How's Tsubaki been?"

"Well, she's moved in with me, so I'm not sure her life could be any better right now!"

"That's wonderful Brian," Maka indicated Black*Star to follow her, and keep quiet. She collected the trolley of returns from where she left it as they kept up the conversation. Black*Star and Maka had never been close, she'd really been Tsubaki's friend, but none-the-less it was pleasant to catch up.

Even if she did have to keep telling him to '_shush, this is a library'_

"I heard you ran into Soul Eater the other day,"

Maka looked at him. '_Looked at him' _looked at him. She hadn't known Black*Star knew Soul Eater, but if there was one thing Black*Star wasn't; it was subtle.

"And...?"

"He's in the market for an assistant."

"You know-"_everyone knew. Maka did not assist. Assisting was a dead end for female magicians; you were dropped as soon as you couldn't bend around that trick box or dazzle the audience with your bare legs anymore._

"It'd just be for a coupla' shows until he gets someone more permanent!"

"Black*Star. I. Do. Not. Assist."

"It's a great opportunity!" Black*Star glanced at his hand layered with points of advice on 'how to win Maka over so she'll spend more time with Soul and find out how cool he is'. "He's a really cool guy, but he's real, ya'know, fussy 'bout his assistants."

"His last assistant was Kim Diehl."

"Everyone makes mistakes. They aren't me, after all. And she's good, there's no denying that."

"Black*Star, I'm sorry, but I don't assist."

"Maka, he likes you. You two'd be good together."

"Brian. We are done talking about this. And tell Soul that if he needs me to assist, he can come hear me say _no _in person."

Black*Star was an idiot, but even he remembered Maka hitting him with books before, and perhaps ambushing her when she was surrounded by her weapon of choice was inadvisable to begin with.

He left and Maka took down all the books she'd shoved roughly into the wrong spaces so that he would get the message and leave before she forcefully embedded knowledge in his cranium.

* * *

_"-Say no in person," _Black*Star quoted in bad impression of Maka, "And then I fucked off outta there because that chick is lethal when armed with a book."

"Thanks for, uh, the help Star," Soul said, cursing under his breath as the gym leader he was battling used a hyper potion to bring back his Pokémon from the brink.

"Dude, I don't even know why you are so fixated on that Maka chick, I mean she's good an all, but you could find someone just as good, whose actually willing to work with you, and like ten times hotter if you contacted like an agency or something. Advertise in the paper maybe?"

"I'm not fixated-!"

"Someone as great as me notices when you switch decks."

"Star, I have hundreds of decks." Soul couldn't go into a shop without buying a deck of cards. He gestured around the apartment, there were cards everywhere, kept together in mismatched decks with elastic bands.

"Why, then Soul, have you been using the one Maka gave you?"

"I just bought it at-"

"Maka's not like you Soul, she only uses this brand of cards- which for the record, are damn hard to get a hold of,"

"When did you get so smart? Did Tsubaki tell you to say all this?"

"How the fuck did you know that?"

"Star, you're my best friend, but let's face it- you're an idiot."

Black*Star didn't even bother to try deny it, and continued attempting to outrun the cops in Grand Theft Auto Five on Soul's Xbox 360.

Soul headed out in the evening, after Star had left, to check out any evening performers working the streets and generously offering the other nightcrawlers cheap entertainment. Soul liked to go for walks late at night- he'd liked it better when he'd lived in New England and didn't feel like he was going to get mugged or harassed by desperate prostitutes, but he couldn't have everything, so his midnight strolls had been reduced to '_around nine p.m. seems like a safe enough time to go for a walk although there are safer times'_ walks.

He passed the living statue that hung out at the corner of his street every evening. That guy was excellent and Soul always found at least quarter or something in his pocket to toss the guy. One time, Soul had seen a kid dart up to the hat and grab it to make a run for it with cash. For a guy who seemed to make a living by standing incredibly still, Soul had never seen anyone react so fast.

A few performers later, Soul noticed a dense crowd and stood up straight to see who had amassed such a crowd. Looking over the heads of dozens of people, he saw Maka standing in the centre of the large clear circle that inevitably occurred when you were good at what you were doing. Soul pushed rudely through the crowd determined to volunteer when she invariably asked for one.

"Hey!" said one guy. "You can't-"

"Watch me," Soul glared at the skinny blonde guy with abnormally thick dark eyebrows and, suddenly, a dark blush.

"You might wanna film this." He advised the Asian kid with the purple hoodie beside him. The teenage fumbled with an iPhone to film Maka. "Man, don't film it vertically; what kinda piece of shit do you want this to turn out to be?"

Maka finished a few simple card tricks, adding her own personal flair. Soul noticed with a grin that Black*Star, or rather Tsubaki, was wrong- Maka didn't only use that brand of card. Those cards were green, like her eyes. Those cards were the cards he'd given her.

So maybe, he'd made her make an exception. Just this once, and just for him.

Soul's grin could've split his face in half when Maka called for a volunteer. He glanced back at the bushy eyebrow guy before stepping forward. His hood was still up so she wouldn't recognise him. Hopefully. Mr. Eyebrows stepped forward, and so did another dude who looked like he hadn't left the house in a while.

"Okay thanks guys!" She looked pleasantly surprised at number of volunteers she had.

"Ethan? Again? Seriously?" She addressed Bushy MacCrazy Brows. She shrugged. "Don't cha' think you should maybe give someone else a shot?"

"Bye brows," Soul muttered as Ethan slunk back into the crowd.

"What's your name kid?" she asked the pale guy, who blanched impossibly until he was the greyish white of old, over washed shirts. The only colour on him was a homemade fan shirt for the Pavement Guild, the street performance elite coupled with the snobbiest this city had to offer. The Pavement Guild considered themselves far too classy to create merchandise as common as the humble t-shirt. Or any kind of merchandise beyond posters, really. If you were initiated though, you were granted license to place a special seal on your business cards and were awarded custom made sterling silver cufflinks.

Once you left the street and you soon did once you were made a member of the exclusive club, you were considered ineligible for the coveted cufflinks.

"Dave." His voice shook with nerves. The poor kid had some kind of magician boner for Maka. Or maybe an actual boner. Soul certainly wasn't going to check. The poor kid was already embarrassing himself enough by looking like he was going to faint.

"And you, with the hood?" Maka smiled at him, peering under the hood, but the shadows prevented her from seeing his garnet eyes. (His mother insisted that Wes's were more a ruby hue.)

"Aaron." Soul grunted.

"Okay, Dave, Aaron, we're going to-"

"Have a public three-way?" Soul smirked under the hood, hoping to get under her skin.

"Aaron!" Maka scolded. "Oh my god! Dave!"

Dave had fainted. The Asian kid perked up, this video was getting to be quality.

Another boy with more facial piercings than it looked possible to talk with stepped forward.

"Don't worry about Dave," Okay, so he could talk. "He's anaemic. I'll call his Mom. He'll be fine."

Dave's Mom arrived in two minutes, and the Asian kid was grinning from ear to ear. This was going to get so many hits on youtube.

After Dave was safely carted away by Mommy-dearest and his friend(who should got the impression that Mommy-dearest thoroughly disapproved of), Maka smiled nervously at the crowd.

"And then there was one," Soul smirked at Maka. Who see couldn't see his face thanks to Assassin's Creed merchandise.

"Okay Mark, we got off to one hell of a rocky and inappropriate start, but can you please pick a card." She fanned out her used-to-be-his deck.

"Sure thang, sweetpea," She blushed and tried not to glare at him.

He plucked at card out at random and flipped ostentatiously it between his fingers, before tucking it up his sleeve and then looking down at his hands in apparent disbelief.

"You got it?"

"Nope."

"What?"

"It's, it's just gone."

"Well, that's certainly not supposed to happen." She shrugged, "You wanna try again?"

"Yeah, sure, why not? Second time's the charm."

"The idiom's 'third time the charm', "Maka corrected, diligently looking away while Soul picked a second card from the deck.

"Alright bookworm."

* * *

_"Please don't put the video in this."_

_"Definitely play that video. It's like a magician rap battle."_

_"It was about to become a magician fight to the death Soul!"_

_"You're exaggerating."_

_"No, I'm really not." Maka hesitated. "Can you please at least cut the segment with Fainting Dave in it? That poor kid still comes to our shows and gets recognised because of this video."_

_"You really think it'll make a difference now?" Soul asked. "Everyone's seen it already. Play the video!"_

_"Soul," Maka reprimanded._

_The quality is fairly decent. Soul's glad he asked the Asian kid and not Ethan Eyebrows to film that. Apart from the very start where Soul's voice can be heard telling the kid not to film it vertically and the camera twists to comply with his demands._

_They have cut it to the best bits, which is good because the whole thing is like ten minutes long._

_"Is this your card?"_

_"No."_

_"Oh." Video Maka leans forwards and tugs two cards out of his sleeve."Is it perhaps one of these cards?"_

_"Not even close."_

_"Oh really? But where did these cards some from?"_

_"Same place as this one." Video Soul seemingly pulls his current, actual trick card from the deck._

_"How did you-?" Maka narrowed her eyes at him. She shuffled the deck, spinning the cards through the air with unnecessary and impressive flourish before turning his deck back on him and offering him the cards. "Let's see what you got,"_

_"You got it pigtails."_

_It was dark and the streetlamp was watery and not too great at its primary function in life, but the pink flush in Maka's cheeks was clearly visible._

_It rapidly devolved into a card trick battle like none seen before, each one trying to get the edge on the other and catching each other out and allowing themselves to be caught out because they were three steps ahead only to find out the other had been four steps ahead. There was rage simmering below the professional facade Maka was struggling to maintain, and a smirk in Soul's voice as he continued to anonymously flirt with her while pulling some insane card moves. She somehow (there were benefits to having Blair around beyond cheaper rent and cable) managed to counter his every quip with a flirtation of her own._

_"Who are you?" Maka asked._

_"Don't you recognise me pigtails?" He leaned forward. "Am I that forgettable, Maka? I'm glad to see you remembered my cards at least."_

_"_Soul!?" _Maka's eyes widened, and her fingers fumbled over the cards, but to her credit she didn't drop any._

_"The one and only." He yanked down his hood and there was a collective gasp as his hair shone brightly in the pale street light. He cupped the back of her head and kissed her before she could react, which would become widely acknowledged a one of the greatest mistakes Soul Eater would make in his career._

_When she did react, mostly out of instinct and not the kissing back she kind of wanted to do, it was to knee him in the balls and shove him away. The video stopped then, and the next parts of their conversation were masked by raucous laughter anyway._

* * *

"Sorry!" She mouthed, and she rushed to his side. "Are you okay?"

"No... Definitely not okay. Significantly not okay."

"Someone get some ice!" Maka ordered. "Look, I didn't mean... you just startled me. I'm so sorry, I really didn't mean to...!"

"I'll find it in my heart to forgive you if you be my assistant."

"Nope, not that sorry."


	3. Zelda and Sandwiches

**3. Zelda and Sandwiches.**

Two days later, Soul was making Maka's day job hell on earth. She was trying and failing to avoid being distracted/annoyed/kinda maybe a lot attracted by him.

"Face it, pigtails, we were brilliant together." He nearly gave her a heart attack in the children's section when she was returning a stack of books by Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl.

"Frick the frack off." She didn't look up from her alphabetizing.

"Frick the frack? What the fuck is that?"

"This is a library, and that was me saying you really need to leave now before I break your gosh darn nose. Also, don't swear, we're in the children's section."

"You couldn't break my 'gosh darn' nose if you tried, bookworm. And also, it's eleven am on a Wednesday. _There is nobody in the library._"

"For the record, I have a black belt and could kick your sorry behind in my stilettos. Anyway, it's professional not to swear in here."

"You weren't very professional a few nights ago."

"Then why do you want me to assist?" She glared at him. "If I'm so unprofessional. And for the record, neither were you. And I really am sorry about that you know."

"Yeah, I know. But you are a great magician. One of the best."

"Soul, my answer is still no. I do not assist. Ever."

"We both know that isn't true, Maka."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh I really think you do."

"I really think I don't, and if you know what's good for you, you won't either."

"But Maka-!"

"Don't make me call security."

"What? That skinny teenage guy with the acne out front? Oh Maka, I'm so scared. Save me Maka, from the plight of teenage skin."

"I can and I will kick your ass outta here Soul." She sighed. "Can't you go read a book or something if you insist on staying? This is my job and I would really appreciate it if you didn't harass me while I was doing it."

"C'mon, we've already got like a zillion hits on youtube,"

"And how many of those were you Soul?"

"You sound like a middle school teacher. In fact if your calling wasn't clearly magic, more specifically assisting me in my act**,** I would go ahead and say that you were meant to be a middle school teacher."

"Soul, you, you really have to go. I need you to leave me alone."

"You'd be brilliant, and it'd just be for a few weeks before you can strike out on your own. I know you can assist."

"I don't care how temporary it is, I'm not doing it. It's the quickest route to a dead end for magicians of the female variety there is. They just get stuck there, performing some routine that involves squeezing into boxes and hoping that their boobs don't fall out of those skimpy costumes."

"Maka, this won't be like that, and you know the reason they wear those skimpy costumes is so that nobody thinks they're hiding anything." Soul grins. "It'd be really cool. We'd be really cool. Everyone'd go see you when you went solo and see how talented you are."

"Flattery will get you nowhere." He followed her back to the librarians' counter- the man at the other computer looked up and rolled his eyes, over the past two days he had come to expect Soul's presence.

"Sercurity?" He mouthed, picking up the phone to call the teenager seated less than 20 yards away who was frantically playing Pokémon X.

Maka shook her head. "I can handle this. Probably,"

Emma, the Head Librarian who was also heavily pregnant and only working one day a week walked in to work her one day a week. Well, not walked so much as waddled, clicking her fingers at the security guard who'd 'generously offered' to carry her belongings to her office in lieu of playing Pokémon.

"Maka! Keep your personal life and your boyfriend out of the workplace." She snapped on seeing Soul leaning over the desk and Maka's pink cheeks and trying-not-to-smile face.

"He's not my boyfriend! He's my pain in the ass," She muttered, blowing her bangs out of her eyes.

"Jesus Maka I wouldn't have pegged you for that sort of thing." She smacked him with a book.

"Ow!" Soul rubbed his forehead. "Ya'know, I'd be a much better boss then 'Head Bitch of the Bookhouse' over there." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the previously mentioned employer. Maka couldn't stifle a small giggle, but she smacked him anyway.

"Look, if you're really serious about this, Soul. I can say no in two hours if you leave me alone until then and pay for my lunch."

"What am I supposed to do until then?"

"It's a library Soul. Read a damn book."

"I can't, I mean..." Soul blushed angrily. "I'm... I'm not a good reader."

"Oh, I, I didn't know Soul." Maka smiled gently. "I'm sorry. Wait here a second."

Maka got up, leaving Soul alone and puzzled and really hoping she wouldn't return with an audio book that was read by anyone but Stephen Fry at least. She pushed a Gameboy Colour into his hands.

"It's been in the Lost and Found since forever, I hope you like the Legend of Zelda."

"If it's been there since forever, why does it still have battery power?"

"Uh, I guess you could say that Kidd and I know Hyrule really well."

Soul looked at the screen where the player options had just appeared: Maka, Kidd and Link.

The time passed easily, the only distraction occurred when a little kid came in and rushed straight up to Maka, arms full of books with a deck of Lego brand playing cards in his pocket.

"Oh! Hello!"

"I came to return these, and show you a trick I learned."

The kid was only nine or that, so the trick was one of the simpler card tricks, but the way Maka reacted, startled and laughing and smiling so broadly you'd swear he'd just magicked an elephant out of a hat. She stacked the books on the trolley behind the desk and took the cards from him and did a pretty cool trick. Soul caught her eye and grinned, letting her know he'd been watching her. She flushed and went back to chatting to the animated little guy before helping him pick a selection of new books on magic.

It wasn't too long after that that Maka got up, semi-saluted Dave and walked over to Soul, looking over his shoulder to check his progress.

"You're alright at that you know."

"I'm alright a lot of things." Maka flushed and looked away.

"I was only trying to give you a compliment."

"Hey, if you don't mind me asking, Maka, how long have you been working here?"

"Hmm... well I started working here when I was sixteen, so that makes it six years now."

"Really, so long?"

She shrugged. "I like it here. Besides, this is just my day job. It isn't a career and I have no intention of doing it forever."

* * *

_"So then Maka bullied me into buying her lunch."_

_"I did not bully you!" Maka cried indignantly._

_"And that was our first date."_

_"That was not a date!"_

_"What do you mean that wasn't a date? I thought it was a date. You totally led me on! She totally led me on." Soul shook his head sadly. "Was I in the Friendzone there for a while?"_

_"Soul, it was more like the 'Is a Restraining order too Extreme at this Juncture' Zone."_

_"C'mon, I wasn't that bad!"_

_"You're lucky I had to deal with that kind of crap from Papa! Any other girl would've called the police Soul."_

_"You wouldn't"_

_"I considered it."_

* * *

"So, uh, where are we going?" He shoved his hands in his pockets.

"I don't know yet, I like to go to as many different places as possible, but there aren't that many around here and I can't get to many others in the lunch break. You want to pick?" she offered.

"Sure, since I'm going to pay." He glanced around, and nodded at the third place he saw. "There looks cool."

"It is."

"Bookworm, you wouldn't know cool if it danced naked in front of you."

"Are you offering then Soul?" Maka said quietly.

"What**? **Bookworm? Where did that come from?" He stared at her in shock, forgetting that maybe her flirting before wasn't all for the crowd and the free lunch. "Are you some kind of secret sexy librarian or something?"

"Or something. After you."

"I insist," Soul pushed open the door, holding it so Maka could pass, and a short chain of bells tinkled. The few customers in there looked up briefly before returning to their sandwiches and other lunch combos. The queue was short and they spent the time scanning the menu written above the deli counter.

"Oh hey Maka, weren't you here yesterday?" The man behind the counter looked puzzled; Maka came here once a week, rotating between all the other cafes nearby.

"Yep, but I let my friend Soul pick so I'm here again today." She grinned. "You want to surprise me with something?"

"You couldn't decide again, huh?" He smiled at her, the corners of his eyes crinkling upwards.

"You know me." She smiled prettily.

"You've only come here once a week for the five years."

"Six, it's been six years since I started at the library. Soul and I were just talking about it, actually."

"How time flies! What does your friend want?"

"I'm sure he can order for himself. Soul?" She glanced at him.

"I'll have a... whatever she's having."

"Can I get you guys something to drink and I'll bring over your food in just a minute?"

"Tea for me, please and thank you Ernie! Soul?"

"Yeah, uh, I'll just have water. Thanks, uh, Ernie."

Soul forked over a twenty and told him to 'keep the change'.

Soul followed Maka to a empty table for two, the kind of table these kind of places will try and convince you can also be a table for four so that your party of four has to shuffle all the quaint little plates around and sacrifice the salt and pepper grinders along with their dignity when they put their elbow in someone's lunch.

"So..."

"Yeah..." Soul sat upright, a sudden thought striking him. "You're not a vegetarian or something are you?"

"Concerned for your sandwich, are you Soul?" she smiled. "No, your carnivorous urges'll be okay around me."

"Hey, I know this might not be the right time to bring it up, but there's never going to be one... So, Maka, why don't you assist?"

"I explained that in the library and you already know that my answer is no."

"There got to be more to it then feminism Maka, and you must know that that's not even true. Lots of assistants go on to make the big time after they go solo. Some have even managed to make the Pavement Guild."

"I don't like those elitist assholes."

"Neither do I. Black*Star thinks he's better then all of them."

"Look, don't tell Black*Star this, but Tsubaki's a member." Maka took the sandwiches from Ernie. "Thanks so much! This looks great!"

"What? I mean-yeah thanks Ern." Soul lowered his voice. "Why doesn't Black*Star know this? How? I mean? Seriously? You have to be like the best of the best."

"Tsubaki's been a member for a really long time, she's been swallowing swords since, I don't know, but she got her cufflinks when she was like thirteen and swallowed her first sword when she was like twelve. Or something."

"Seriously?"

"Don't mention it though. She hates the attention. She's only keeping it up to impress Black*Star. I think she just wants to settle down."

"Well, considering how completely and impossibly smitten she is with black*Star, I wish her the best of luck with that." He paused. "Isn't your Dad a member?"

Soul knew he was a member- you aren't a die-hard fan of someone without battling through their autobiography.

"Uh, yeah, yeah he is." Maka blushed, "How did you know that? My Dad retired from performing before I moved out, and that was what? It was just after I started at the library so at least six years ago, maybe seven. He's still writing though, and running the theatre."

"It was, uh, nine years ago."

"Nine!?" Maka shook her head. "No way."

"I went to his last ever performance when I was 14, so, yeah, nine years."

"Were you some kind of fanboy of my Papa Soul?"

"What? No!"

"Good. He's a jerk." She took a large angry bite out of the sandwich.

"He seemed so cool when I met-"Soul faltered, noticing Maka's glare, "But hey, you're the expert." He busied himself inspecting his sandwich, which was defiantly not whatever Maka had. Well, she'd asked for a surprise, so maybe that was what this was.

"Me and him, well, we don't exactly see eye to eye, especially not since Mama moved out." Maka admitted. "And she moved out a long time ago. It's hard to keep in touch with her sometimes, because she travels so much. We do our best though."

"Your mom, that's uh, Kami Albarn isn't it?"

"Yeah, she was the best magician I've ever seen! She doesn't perform any more either though."

"I thought she was only Spirit's assistant because she was his wife."

"Everyone thinks that." Maka cleared her throat. "But Papa's only famous because of her. She was the brains of the operation, but she let him take all the credit. She was happy designing the illusions, and she taught me everything I know. She was really smart, and she could've gotten into any college in the world, but all she wanted to do was magic, so she did engineering in State to save money. College was tough for her, cause I was so young and all."

"Maka, how old were your parents when you were born?" He knew they were young, but he didn't know that they were that young.

"Uh, Mama was nineteen, and Papa was eighteen." Maka shrugged. "They got married after they had me. I mean is there any more obvious way to say 'accident'?"

"Whoa, so Spirit was only in his thirties when he retired?"

"Well, he couldn't keep going without Mama for very long. He couldn't create his own new illusions without Mama. He's a second rate magician who took all the credit Mama deserved." She scowled. "Soul, have you read my father's autobiography? The one with the really cheesy title pun?"

"You mean _That's the Spirit?" _Soul asked. "And, yeah, yeah I have. So I know you've not never assisted, cause you assisted him after your mom left, whenever he was between assistants. Which was a lot."

"That's cause he fucked them and dumped them."

Whoa, what? Where did that come from?

"He was a whore who took advantage of them, then tossed them out on the street. There was only so much of his cheating Mama could take really, and I don't blame her for leaving. Not even a little." Maka sighed and pushed the remainder of her sandwich away. She wasn't hungry anymore. "I'd make him promise to stop in exchange for assisting, because he knew, _he knew _I hated doing it- I might not be as vocal about it as Black*Star, but I wanted to be the start of my own show, even back then. Anyway, it never made a blind bit of difference, he never changed and from what I've heard, he still hasn't. We don't keep in touch."

"So you really don't assist?"

"I really don't Soul." She stood up. "You'll just have to find some other girl to assist."

"I don't want another girl; there isn't anyone as good as you out there. Please Maka,"

"And you wouldn't take all the credit?"

"Hey, I'm not your Dad; I can design my own illusions! I just need your help to pull them off." Soul said. "Also, all my illusions, well, I need assistants to help.., uh..., you'll understand when you see them."

Soul's illusions reeked of madness and terrified people in their bare state, he needed help to make them not look like they crawled out of the pit of hell to terrorize innocent children.

"I didn't say I'd do it."

"But you will."

"Saying that makes me not want to do it at all. And what on earth makes you think I'll do it."

"Well, apart from the fact that I'm darn cute,-" Maka chuckled "- you, like every other performer can't resist a stage."

"No, you're right. I can't."

"So you'll do it!?"

"Just until you find someone else and if I see you not looking for someone else I am going to end you."


	4. Cleaning Supplies and Cardigans

**4. A Cleaning Supplies and Cardigans.**

_"I only agreed to do a couple of shows, and we had to agree the particulars with his agent."_

_"You didn't have an agent then, did you?"_

_"No, I couldn't afford one. And besides, an agent would've dropped me like a hot potato when they found out about my unwillingness to assist."_

_"Anyway, it took a couple of days before that happened, and a contract for eight shows was draw up. I wanted fifteen."_

_"I didn't want any more than five."_

_"So we met up in coffee shops and things a couple of times to make plans and throw around some ideas before we went to his workshop and rehearsal space,"_

_"And where is that?" The interviewer interjected at last, glad to get a word in at all._

_"We can't tell you that!"_

_"That's highly sensitive information! We don't want a load of kids trying to break in or something." Maka paused. "We'll take you there to get some footage of us rehearsing some day, but you can't tell people where it is. It's not very secure really."_

_"Yeah, some asshole stole the flatscreen a couple of months ago."_

_"Well, that was a bad idea from the start Soul, and you know that the insurance covered it." Maka shook her head. "I still don't think that having a television there is a good idea at all! All you do is get distracted when we're supposed to be working."_

_"It's in the break room!"_

* * *

Soul gave her directions to the industrial estate on the outskirts of the city. From what she could see it was awarehouse. She was early, so she opened the door with the set of keys he'd given her and punched the six digit code into the beeping box on the wall.

There were two small spaces, originally intended to be offices; one had become a drafting room with huge sheets of paper pinned to wall and a large desk with discarded coffee mugs and HB pencils and geometry sets scattered on it. Beneath her feet discarded scraps of paper and crumpled up plans crunched. The other was clearly some kind of recreational room, with a couch and a flatscreen and a kitchen with more discarded mugs and a serious backlog of dishes and takeaway containers that really stunk. There was a small bathroom with a tiny shower, and upstairs there was an empty bed with crumpled sheets and a wardrobe with a few changes of clothes.

The last door opened into the actual warehouse space of the warehouse, a huge capital L shape that hugged the small 'living' space that was originally intended for people to have offices in. It huge and cold and the floor was covered in a carpet of pale sawdust, disassembled illusions were stacked on top of each other, and power tools and cables were strewn about the floor. There was an expensive iPod dock balanced carefully on a trunk of miscellaneous props next to a long wooden workable. There was a raised 'stage' area and a dodgy looking van parked next to it. A van that looked like it would fall apart rather than carry illusions to and from shows.

"Maka!" She heard Soul yell. "Where are you?"

"In here!" She answered. "How'd you know I was here?"

"Alarm was off, bookworm." He punched her arm gently in greeting. "Waddaya think? Not such a bad setup is it Maka? You ready to get to work?"

"Are you kidding? Have you ever looked at the place lately? It's filthy Soul! We aren't doing anything until this place is clean."

"You're my assistant, not my Mom." Soul grumbled.

"Well tough. I don't know how you can work here at all!" Maka stuck out her tongue. "But we aren't starting anything until this place is cleaned up. Where do you keep the cleaning supplies?"

Soul grudgingly lead the way to a pretty sparse cupboard so Maka pushed a shopping list into his hand and sent him on his way before taking one of the black plastic sacks from the roll and starting to throw takeaway containers(and the mould that was often growing on them) into it. She threw open the windows to air out the small rooms and managed to start tackling the dishes and the verifiable mountain of mugs before Soul arrived back. Each piece of crockery and cutlery took a lot of elbow grease to remove the stubborn dirt before being set on the draining board.

He wasn't a minute inside the building when Maka threw a tea towel at him so he could start drying and putting away the dishes, mostly because Maka couldn't tell where he kept them. After a minute, it became apparent that Soul hadn't done the dishes in a long time, since he just shoved them into any old press. It didn't matter, because Maka took them all out again afterwards to wipe out the insides of the shelves.

It was a long day, involving many refuse sacks and arguments and a lot of sawdust sweeping but at the end of the day even Soul could see the difference- though he wouldn't mention because he was too busy griping about how Maka gave him bathroom duty ( 'I'm not cleaning a bathroom I've never even used Soul! That's on you!').

"Do you stay here often Soul?" Maka enquired as he was locking up.

"Usually, if I'm behind schedule, or I stay here pretty late cause I'm wrapped up in a project..." He shrugged, and heaved a refuse sack of laundry over his shoulder. "I try to avoid it if I can help it. It's fucking freezing in there at night."

"It's freezing in there during the day." Maka pointed out.

"Do you need a lift anywhere?" Soul offered, but Maka's pretty sure the oodles of extra space on his motorcycle will be occupied by the laundry he seriously needs to do.

"I'm fine, Soul, honest." She smiles.

"How are you getting home?"

"The subway. How does anyone get around this town?"

"Well, see you tomorrow anyway."

* * *

_"The weeks between the contract and our first show together were insane!" Maka laughed. "When I wasn't at the library I was rehearsing and working out the illusions and building them with Soul and if I wasn't there, I was asleep!"_

_"She wouldn't give up her day job..."_

_"You're lucky I managed to give it up at all!"_

_"It was in those early days that I became familiar with what Black*Star informed me was the 'Maka Chop' "Soul rubbed his head. "If I didn't have such a 'thick skull' according to Maka, I'd probably be dead by now."_

* * *

Maka glared at the costume Soul held out to her.

"Seriously? You expect me to fit into that?"

"What wrong with it?"

"Let me just throw it on there and then you'll know," Maka ducked behind an illusion to change into the ridiculous costume. "No peeking!"

"Maka! I'm not-!" Soul protested. "Oh. I see what you meant."

The costume gaped away from her chest in a way that Soul knew an alteration would have to be extreme and would appear obvious. Maka was small, Soul hadn't reckoned on exactly how small.

"New costume then?" She moved back behind to change back into her street clothes.

"I think that'd be best. I mean, Kim took all hers, but my first assistant Nat left all hers behind." He shrugged. "She doubted she'd use them after the baby was born. You get whatever you want-"

"Our first show is less than a week Soul. I'm not going to... oh."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Oh." She smiled. "Don't worry about it Soul, I'll have something."

"Something cool please?"

"Yeah- listen, I've to go or I'll be late for work!" Maka grinned. The rest of the day passed painfully slowly for Maka, barely making it in time to log in and hurriedly change once again that day into more respectable work attire. She had mixed feelings about this but she dialled her father's number automatically.

She hadn't called him in over two years- he called her to arrange their lunches, but she hadn't forgotten the number and dialled correctly first time.

"Hi, Papa,"

"Maka? Maka! You never call!"

"Yeah, sorry about that-"a little white lie never hurt anybody, right? "-hey Papa? Can I ask you something?"

"Of course! Anything baby girl!"

"Yeah, please don't call me that. And, Papa, I don't suppose that you have any of Mama's old costumes lying around?"

"Of course! You know how your old Papa never throws anything out!" He paused. "Why do you want them? I can drop them to your apartment if you want."

"Yeah, that'd be great. Maybe-" she had to throw the old man a bone here, so she swallowed her pride. "You could help me chose one, if you aren't too busy."

"Of course I'm not busy to help my baby girl!"

"I thought I asked you- never mind, I'll see you around eight, yeah?"

"See you then baby girl!" Maka hung up, already regretting her decision and dealing with conflicted feelings on the night ahead.

It turned out to be a difficult evening for Maka, and dealing with her father's conflicting feelings about wanting his daughter to look her best but somehow retain her modesty in the very outfits his wife has once paraded around in.

"What about this?"

"_Not that! I don't want that freaky looking- _I don't think that colour is right."

Maka was forced to praise her mother's good taste in clothes, admiring the old, but thankfully not dated outfits. She ended up shoving her father out the door before Blair got home without making a decision. Blair'd help. Blair was good at clothes. Blair was really good at sexy underwear type clothes, and in her own words 'the foundation for any good outfit is good underwear. You're going to look and feel a lot better in expensive underwear and a cheap dress then you will in an expensive dress and cheap underwear. You can't scrimp on your panties, kitten!'

She seen a pack of five plain white cotton briefs in Maka's shopping one day, and that had prompted the lecture. Maka had continued purchasing multi packs of underwear. Blair shook her head and tutted every time she noticed.

She didn't even have to. Blair pounced on the clothes strew about the living room the minute she walking the door.

"You need help deciding what to wear to impress your little magician boyfriend?"

"He's not my boyfriend!"

"Yet." Blair smiled coyly. "Okay, kitten, you don't need to ask twice! Of course I'll help!"

Maka didn't even ask once, so she watched Blair paw through the clothes on the couch and the ones still in the suitcase. She could already tell this was going to take a while, so she grabbed a book, and curled up in an armchair.

* * *

_"All my early costumes were my Mama's."_

_"I never knew that."_

_"Where do you think I got a wardrobe that good on short notice? And really? People could not stop pointing it out."_

_"Okay- don't, I mean- I thought maybe that Blair had something to do with it."_

_"Well, she helped me chose and she did change a few things around to suit better."_

* * *

Maka put on the costume Blair had chosen quickly, before pulling on sweatpants and an overlarge sweater that slipped off one shoulder. She hurriedly styled her hair and did her make-up. Stage make-up is one of the worst types of make-up you will ever have the misfortune of wearing, it will be layered on heavily to compensate for the bright lighting and involve all the kinds of techniques that mean you'll look insane or really enthusiastic about make-up. She had to run to catch the bus diligently ignoring the stares of the other passenger and she ran once again down the alley way to the back entrance of the small, beautiful theatre.

"Maka! I was scared you'd chicken out!"

"Who do you think I am?" She grinned. "How's stage set up going?"

"Alright. Well do a run thorough in a few minutes, for lighting and shit- just lemme go change- you can change in there." He nodded to a room, before ducking into his.

The changing room was dingy and dimly lit, so Soul changed quickly. And when he stepped out Maka was waiting for him, shivering in the draughty corridor. She was dressed in a red and white striped shirt with a v-neck and puffy short sleeves, black shorts and fishnet stockings and suspenders and heels that make her tall enough to look him in the eyes.

"I told Black*Star there was a hottie under those cardigans." He joked.

"Don't mock the cardigan." She paused. "You aren't too bad yourself."


	5. A Stage Light and Buckets

**5. A Stage Light and Buckets**

"_That first show was a disaster."_

_"Everything that could've gone wrong did go wrong."_

_"We had no idea just how many things were wrong with that theatre."_

* * *

Halfway through rehearsal, it started raining, and it became clear that the roof was leaking badly. After checking the weather forecast on Soul's smartphone they rearranged all their illusions and props around buckets catching the steady stream of drips. The curtain jammed, so they just left it open when everyone filed into the auditorium.

When they asked for a volunteer he knocked over one of the illusion props and a bucket of leak-water. Maka was forced to dive out of the path of a falling light midway through the performance, rolling to jump up again and bow like the whole thing had been rehearsed. Then neither of them could move it so they just had to work around the fallen lamp, which was not only irritating, there was a little while there where Maka could not avoid thinking it was also going to catch fire when it wouldn't stop sparking.

The show, the illusions and tricks were a lot darker then Soul's previous shows (not that Maka had been to any or anything) and tinged with insanity. Maka maintained that genius and madness went hand in hand, so when Soul asked her what he could do to make it less sharp and horrifying, she shrugged and told him she loved his style.

All his other assistants had gentled up his act, he'd admitted, when he'd asked. After they'd freaked out just a little.

The only thing that didn't go wrong was an audience member dying, although, there was an elderly woman in the third row who Maka and Soul both felt was cutting it a little close.

When they bowed to thunderous applause, Maka glanced at Soul out of the corner of her eye and grinned, exhausted by the hour and a half long performance.

* * *

**_'...when my boss told me to go review these two, I assumed they were riding on the coat-tails of their family- Soul of the Evans family, noted internationally for producing the best musicians, and Maka Albarn, well, anyone anyway in touch with the performance scene has heard of her parents, some of the greatest performers to ever live...' Pierce Mitchell- The Independent_**

**_'...I was pleasantly surprised by the pair, who if nothing else, seem great in an emergency. They performed the Kingsley Theatre_**_;_**_ note-worthy for its status as a public health hazard. The roof was leaking and they moved around the conspicuous buckets with ease, Maka Albarn avoiding certain death by falling spotlight...' Markus Fludd- _**

**_'...the illusions were beautifully conceived and executed, despite near death experiences and clumsy volunteers...' Aimee Carroll- _**

**_'...it was the duo's first performance together and it is the first time I have really seen Soul 'Eater' really come of his shell. He's previous shows have been tame and -dare I say it- generic. With Albarn at his side, he has come into his own, madness seeping into every inch of his performance, tempered by the lovely Albarn, who, word on the street, is a fairly accomplished magician in her own right...' Edgard Nichols- _**

**_'...the Julliard drop-out seems to have found his calling in magic, and a perfect assistant in Albarn- a vision in one of her mother's iconic costumes. I'd highly recommend keeping an eye on these two, they're going places, and fast...' Ellen Lawrence- _**

* * *

_"We exploded all over the internet, it was totally insane!"_

_"And that's what really took us off, the rest of the run sold out within the next few days." Maka shrugged and laughed. "It was crazy- I'd gone from relative obscurity to people recognising my in the street. Not very often mind, but it did happen occasionally. Soul, well Soul was shoved into the limelight again. He hates the limelight,"_

_"I didn't! It was all the Twihards and Goths and Emo kids and..."_

_"Don't forget the scene kids."_

_"They flocked to me. I think there was a time there that I could've ordered a hit on someone and it would've happened. It was kinda scary, having all these teenager__**s**__ looking up to you all of a sudden, but still cool."_

_"All the girls loved him!" She elbowed him. "And they were trying to copy his look. Hydrogen peroxide sales rocketed."_

_"Yeah, you can joke about it now, but I remember you totally freaking when confronted with an entire room of look-a-likes."_

_"I was scared I wouldn't find you!" He bundled her into his arms._

_"Well, you stuck out like a sore thumb, so I managed to find you."_

* * *

"Soul?" Maka called, forcing her way through the crowd of his fans. There were so many of them and most of them didn't even notice that she'd been a crucial part of the act as well. She was just another person trying to get close to Soul 'Eater' Evans. There were at least a dozen white heads dotted through the crowd, hair meticulously styled to look like Soul's swiftly becoming iconic 'I totally rolled out of bed like this' but she was almost certain none them were Soul.

This party-slash-Q&A-slash-who the fuck even knew what was going on had been a terrible idea; she couldn't see anyone she recognised, which was two parts terrifying and one part irritating.

The only person she knew was at this party was Soul and she couldn't even find him! They had two more shows to go, and she wasn't entirely sure that he was even a little committed to finding a new assistant. Tsubaki and Black*Star were allegedly here as well, but it was hard to recognise anyone in the this crowd of teenagers wearing black with hair dyed unnatural colours and a lot of girls rocking that Gothic Lolita look to try and impress Soul and his strange taste. She stood out a little. Kind of a lot.

Her hair was her natural dull blonde colour- it looked nice in the right light sometimes- and her dress was a short black something or other that Blair had stuffed her into. Her heavy combat boots made her blend a little more, but she was only wearing them cause her heels broke- she had to get a refund tomorrow, they weren't even a week old, a treat to herself for assisting so well.

She'd forgotten how rude teenagers could be until one elbowed past her to get closer to the front. She glared after her, but she was too busy using her elbows to clobber her way to the front to notice Maka shooting daggers at her, it was getting more crowded by the minute and Maka really should've been here earlier and gotten better directions to the back entrance and she couldn't think of a way to worm her phone out of her bra to text Soul and admit that she'd gotten caught in the crowds pouring into the building.

She could see them setting up the panel for the Q&A before the party got started and everyone'd have time to rub shoulders with Soul. She could see Soul checking his phone and rubbing his head nervously, putting his meticulously styled hair at risk and she cringed, raising her hand to try and get his attention as the crowd was wedged to a halt, but everyone else was trying to get his attention too.

He lifted his phone to his ear and she could feel the call vibrating in her bra. She struggled to wriggle it out of her bra before he gave up.

"Yeah?"

"Maka! Where are you?"

"I'm in the crowd! I got swept up in a whole bunch of them and I literally cannot move! Use your magic influence over them to get me up there."

"How'd you get caught up like that- nevermind. Where are you?" She could see him scanning the crowd.

"I'm on your left, kinda far back."

"Where, hang on- I've got you. Probably." Soul moved over to tap the microphone, and suddenly she could hear his voice, the tone not nearly as soft as it was when he spoke to her and when he sang in the workshop when he didn't think she was listening. "Hey, guys. We have encountered a slight problem."

There was a collective groan.

"I seem to have misplaced my wonderful assistant Maka-" Maka scowled. "That or she doesn't like me as much as I thought she does and is avoiding me." He shrugged and laughed, seemingly at ease with the crowd. But this personality was different to the one she saw in the warehouse, convincingly open and friendly and entirely false. "She about yea high-" he motioned with his hand, "-with blonde hair and the prettiest green eyes I've ever seen." A small smile slipped onto her face.

"And if she's heard me saying that, she's probably blushing too."

Everyone started glancing around hurriedly, not really seeing Maka, until she put her hand up.

"That's my girl!" He scratched his head. "Are you morally opposed to crowd surfing?"

"SOUL I SWEAR TO GOD-" Maka yelled, startling the dedicated fans beside her.

"Guys, would you mind-," And before Maka had time to protest, she was hoisted above the crowd, and carried over their heads, passed from person to person to person with wandering hands to person to weirdo who tried to steal her shoes. It was terrifying, but kinda cool.

Soul pulled her up on the stage, and she smacked him.

"Don't pull crap like that on me again!"


	6. A Little Black Dress and Tuning Forks

**6. A Little Black Dress and Tuning ****Forks**

"Hey Maka, I know, I mean... listen do you wanna come over tonight? Just for drinks to uh, celebrate the start of your solo career. Again." Soul's voice was tinny over the recorded message.

Maka smiled to herself when listened to the message he'd left, before texting him and answer. She'd be there at eight.

Then she texted him for directions because she remembered that she didn't actually know where he lived. She hurriedly stashed her phone in her lap when an overworked looking au pair came to the desk apologising profusely and asking what was a good American bedtime story. The rest of her day passed slowly, and she found herself sketching ideas to improve certain less than ideally functioning illusion props of Soul's before realizing his props weren't really any of her business anymore.

She bought a bottle of red wine on her way home from work-it wouldn't do to show up empty handed now, would it?

She wore a dress Blair had bought her two Christmases ago- a classic little black dress that was just a little too short. Desperate times called for desperate measures. She tucked the bottle of wine into a slightly more impressive bag before heading out.

It took her a little while to get to Soul's building, and when she got there the doorman let her straight up saying that he recognised her from the show he'd gotten free tickets to. Soul had given them to him for letting him borrow his hat for the evening. She thanked him and said that the hat looked much better on him than Soul. (It was only a little white lie)**.**

The elevator ran smoothly and Soul, confident in the abilities of his doorman not to let up serial killers, had wedged his door open with a sneaker. Well she was pretty sure it was his door. She recognised the shoe. She pushed open the door.

"Knock, knock?" She inquired into the open plan space. "Soul?"

"Shit!" She heard in response. "You weren't supposed to- you're early."

She glanced around to see Soul standing next to a beautiful grand piano. It may have been a baby grand, but Maka was not too clear on the distinction. He used his foot to push a roll of tools under the piano.

"I am?" She checked her watch. "Your clock is really slow. Actually, Soul, your clock is stopped." She nodded at the hands, frozen at quarter past six.

"Awh, shit Maka, I meant to- I mean I thought I had load of time- sorry," He rubbed the back of his head. "I wanted to play for you, but I haven't touched Frank in a while and he's all out of tune, I thought I'd have time but... well fuck."

"Frank?"

"Frank's a Steinway, so you know like-"

"Doctor Frankenstein?" Maka said.

"Yeah, I was never any good at naming things."

"How long is it going to take you to tune that bad boy?"

"It doesn't matter- it was stupid anyway, I'm not even that good..."

"I bet you're great." Maka smiled. "C'mon, I've always wanted to hear you play."

"You have?" She nodded in response. "Maka, there's no way I was going to get this finished tonight in reality, but I promise I'll invite you over next week when I have it tuned and I'll treat you to dinner and a performance."

"I might just take you on that." She glanced down, and remembered the wine. "Oh! I brought wine! It's pretty cheap stuff, but I didn't have any cash on me," She admitted.

"It's fine. You look nice," She blushed, and in Soul's opinion she looked even better.

"You look good too."

Soul glanced down at his faded band t-shirt and ripped jeans, and cringed, his bare feet curling in embarrassment. "I meant to change. Sorry."

"Don't be. I like it." She looked around. "Do you have any glasses?"

"Listen, Maka, before you- uh, I was wondering. I know we said it was only for eight shows-" He rubbed the back of his neck.

"Soul. No. I'm going to stop you right there! We agreed that it was eight shows-"

"Maka, c'mon I need you! You're the best!" His red eyes were pleading.

"Soul. I know that. I'm good enough to have my own show!"

"Maka, please, I can't find anyone else."

"How hard did you look, Soul? In all honesty?"

"Well-"He blushed, in truth, the answer was he hadn't looked at all except to poke his head into the agency to say 'hi.'

"You were just hoping that I'd want to say on? I'm not getting stuck in a dead end assisting job! You knew this wasn't a 'forever' kind of deal. I made sure of that from the start Soul!" She was starting to get pissed off and Soul found himself grateful of the extreme shortage of Maka's weapon of choice in his apartment.

"Maka! C'mon! Just a few more shows, I've never enjoyed performing as much with any other assistant. Just please?" Soul's jaw clenched. A short fuse was contagious, evidently.

"Soul, I did the shows, why couldn't we just have a nice goodbye evening in your apartment?" Maka set the bottle of wine gently down on the ground before she threw it at him or something. Shame to waste it on him.

"Maka, it'd just be a few more, just-"

"Soul, I _cannot _believe that you are asking me to this. You know I hate assisting! I only did it because- as a favour! I said I was only going to do eight shows and you agreed and you can't just ask me to-"

"Would you ever fucking shut up and listen to me Maka!"

"Make me!"

"Jesus fucking Christ Maka you're so-"

"For fuck's sake, Soul! Anyone with a half a damn brain would know that when I said '_make me'_ I really meant was '_get your cute ass over here and fucking kiss me already the sexual tension is fucking killing me_' you fucking dumbass. HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THAT!?"

"Oh."

"Yeah, 'oh' Soul."

"Has the moment passed?"

"Yes the fucking moment has passed. I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU THINK THAT I'M THE DENSE ONE IN THIS."

"What is this?"

"I don't have a good answer for that. You know what it's not though?"

"What?"

"A PERMANENT FUCKING SOLUTION TO YOUR ASSISTANT THING."

"Shut up Maka!

"No!"

"I thought you were going to-"

"You don't get a fucking second chance at the opportune fucking moment."

"MAKA YOU CAN'T HAVE EVERYTHING JUST PERFECT AT THE RIGHT TIME YOU ARE SUCH A PERFECTIONIST YOU GOTTA GO WITH THE FUCKING FLOW SOMETIMES AND JUST LET THINGS HAPPEN."

"Oh SHUT UP SOUL."

"No- I mean, MAKE ME."

Maka seized the collar of his shirt and pulled his face down to meet hers.

"If you insist."

It was the angriest, most aggressive kiss Soul had ever experienced and he was loving every fucking second of it. There were tongues involved almost immediately and he could feel her trace every one of his freakish fang-like teeth. He slammed into his wall and a framed print fell off of the wall and the glass splintered across the floor. He pulled Maka up and she wrapped her legs around his waist, tightening them like she never wanted to let him go as her hands tangled in his white hair and he learned that her ass felt exactly as good as it looked.

As suddenly as it started, Maka pulled away, stumbling as she unwrapped her legs and back away. She knocked over the wine and it rolled across the floor slowly.

"Oh, god."

"Just me, Maka." He cringed internally.

"I have to go, I can't... we can't- this isn't..."

"Maka, I want this and you know that I've wanted it since met you." Soul looked at her, right in the eyes. It freaked most people out when he did that. Maka had never had a problem with it though. "Evidence suggests that you also want this. What's the problem? Maka? "

"Soul, I just, I have to go. This never happened. Promise me that this never happened."

She darted across the room and slammed the door behind her, leaving Soul to pretend that the best kiss in his life so far never happened.


	7. Fifty Shades of Grey and a Beginning

**7. Fifty Shades of Grey and a Beginning (or two)**

_Then we had this huge complicated argument, and we stopped talking for a while."_

_"My life really sucked without you."_

_"Yeah. Mine too."_

* * *

Life without Soul kind of sucked. Kind of sucked a lot. There wasn't anything to look forward to. She wasn't having much luck in getting any shows- everyone thought that Soul was the talent. Which he was, kinda. That didn't mean she couldn't stand on her own two feet. It did mean however, that he never dropped into the library around eleven-ish to smuggle her in a cup of tea (a little milk, no sugar) if he 'happened to be going this way anyway.'

She didn't get to see his smile and watch him use his sharp teeth to clear paths in crowded areas. She didn't get to nag him for not cleaning the dishes in the break room, and she didn't get to crash in his bed in the warehouse on particularly late nights spent working. But she didn't have to pull away from his arms in the morning either before he realized what he'd done in his sleep to go to work.

Work. Work sucked. Work sucked a lot. Maka had never been bored or resentful of her job at the library before now. Not once in her life had she ever not looked forward to the quiet atmosphere of the library and the musty smell of knowledge that was the most comforting to her, more than anything in the world. _Had been _the most comforting smell in the world. Now it was a spicy, warm scent, mixed with the smell of leather and fresh cut wood.

Everything sucked. Maka missed Soul. But she also wanted to punch him like a lot. And then kiss him some more. She didn't know what to do, so she didn't do anything.

She wouldn't answer her phone, and she wouldn't reply to his texts. He was getting weird and creepy and desperate and none of these are things that suit anyone. So he sighed and did the most desperate, 'this-is-going-to-get-me-a-restraining-order' move he could.

Soul hadn't really known what to expect when he pressed the buzzer with Maka Albarn and Blair Cahal written in purple ink on it. He knew Maka was still at the library, so he was pretty sure this counted as underhanded, and at the very least an invasion of her privacy.

"Blair speaking! Hi!" her high pitched voice did not improve over the tinny speakers.

"It's, uh, Soul? I-"

"Oh! You're Maka's handsome magician!" She squealed, and Soul cringed away from the speaker grill. "Come right up! She's been so down since you two fought, and she won't even tell me why you broke up with her!"

"What? We weren't-" She wasn't even there anymore.

Soul waited a second before pushing the door open. He knew Maka lived on the top floor, she'd mentioned that when they'd had that last big rain shower her roof had leaked and she and Blair had to put a basin under it and their hydrophilic cat had decided to go for a swim. What he hadn't known, was however, that the elevator was 'out of order' and judging by the dust on the extremely faded sign; it had been for quite a while.

So he took the stairs. All twelve flights of them. No wonder Maka stayed so thin, despite everything she ate. It was down to the power of the staircase and karate. And alphabetizing. She'll Maka Chop his cranium away if-god forbid-he neglected to mention the alphabetizing. He knocked on the door with a peeling paper label in the same style as the one next to the buzzer.

The door flung open, and Soul finally met Maka's elusive and strangely familiar looking room-mate with the long purple hair and the amber eyes framed by eyelashes longer then her stiletto false nails and boobs that were barely contained in her tight leather top.

And all of a sudden he remembered exactly where he'd seen her before and blushed, bright red and mumbled incoherently.

She laughed and ushered him in, before blowing him a kiss and rushing out the door."Listen, tell Maka I'll be home late, I have a meeting with a director! There's food in the fridge if we haven't eaten it all and Maka should've told me you were this handsome! I would've had you over much sooner! Bye cutie!"

Soul sank into the couch like he wanted it to swallow him up like that one episode of _The Simpsons._

He wasn't hungry enough to raid their fridge and resolutely ignored the cat rubbing against him. Which**,** as everyone knows, only causes cats to demand your attention more so she clawed her way up his leg and forcibly wormed her way onto his lap in order to butt her head to his red face.

He pushed the cat away to examine the bookshelves that lined the walls only allowing a small amount of space for the dusty television set. It became very clear, very quickly that almost, if not all(and in that case Maka had read some strange books that made Soul slightly uncomfortable to read the spines of) the books were the property of one Maka Albarn. There were books on everything from organic chemistry to motorcycle maintenance to those that could not be legitimately considered literature**:** _Fifty Shades of Grey_ and the ilk(he was relieved to see 'Property of Blair Cahal' written inside the front cover). And of course, the books on magic.

Packed into the shelves, they were all well loved and worn, pages bursting with left behind memories and tangible post-it-notes in a multitude of colours that adorned the pages. Spines were cracked and the cheaper sort of hardbacks were without their covers, naked on the shelves. One book, however caught Soul's eye- an edition he'd had, that he'd battled his way through because quite frankly it was excellent and deserved more recognition then the single printing had received.

Maka's edition, was stuffed with notes and musings unlike his because theoretically you solved each illusion before moving on. Soul had been more interested in learning how the illusions were done, and then figuring out how he would change the trick had he performed it.

He heard the rattle of keys and the telltale signs of a person laden with groceries in the kind of paper bag without handles- that is to say; cursing, rustling, and the clacking sound of tins hitting each other.

Maka pushed open the door with her hip just in time to see Soul stuffing her favourite childhood book back into the shelf and flushed angrily.

"Soul!" She dumped the groceries on the counter-top. "How did you get in here?"

"Uh, Blair let me in."

"Oh. I didn't know she was home."

"She's not, she had like a date or something." Soul explained, and then decided to change the subject. "It's a nice place you got here."

"It's nothing compared to your apartment. And the roof leaks."

"That's a shame." He nodded looking around the room again. "Listen Maka, we really need to talk."

"There isn't anything to talk about. I kept my half of the agreement, and I did the eight shows. I'm not doing anymore."

"But you're the best!"

"Yeah, and I deserve my own act Soul. I'm tired of playing second fiddle to you and everyone else in this business." She started unpacking the groceries. "Look, you'll find someone else, and she'll be great and really pretty and everyone'll love her."

"Yeah, but she won't be you, and I don't want anyone else."

"Now you're being petulant." Maka sighed. "Soul, you just, you have to let me go. It was always going to be temporary."

"Can you just shut the fuck up for a second Maka! Please?"

Maka didn't say anything but she made no promises she would continue to be silent.

"Listen, Maka, I don't care about the dumb shows or anything, I don't want another assistant, or anyone, I just... I like when we hang out and I like that you like how dark and messed up my illusions are and fuck Maka, and really like you and I really, really liked when we kissed. And I'd really like if we could do it again. Even if you don't want to be my assistant and even if you don't want to try date or something, I just, I just really like having you around."

Maka was silent some more, but that was probably, hopefully, stunned silence. As time passed, Soul got less and less hopeful.

"I'm just going to go... seeya Maka,"

"Don't go. I, kinda, like having you around too." Maka swallowed. "I think I'd kinda like it if you were around a lot more."

"I can do that."

She smiled at him, awkward as a teenage girl with her first crush. She looked at her feet and when she looked up again he was an awful lot closer.

"Around where? Here?" Those crimson eyes were most definitely on their way to becoming smouldering bedroom eyes.

"I guess you could be closer."

"Could I? Really?"

"Yeah. You really could."

She grabbed his hand and they laced their fingers together reflexively. His other hand sat on her waist, and she leaned up on her toes, using his shoulder to keep herself supported and then there wasn't really a space between them at all.

It was feather-light and cautionary at first, evolving exponentially the way the best kisses do, from soft and sweet to curious and exploratory to passionate and hot.

Maka fumbled with the knob on her door, and the click made him pull away in shock, an idea falling into his head fully formed.

"We could be like partners or whatever."

"Yeah. Partners sounds perfect."

* * *

**That be it. I'll hunt out the rough draft of the Ghost and finish that ASAP I promise.**


End file.
